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Posthumous Memoir of Myself-New Monthly
Magazine,

Pardoe, Miss, Memoir of Bentley's Miscel
lany,

Peerage, Romance of Dublin University
Magazine,

Press, The, during the Past Year-Bentley's
Miscellany,

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495
535

Post-Office, the British-Fraser's Magazine,
POETRY.-My Childhood's Thought, 22; To Strug-
gle when Hope is banished, 52; Loved at Home, 65;
Sonnet to Wilberforce, 90; Now as Ever, 111;
Shadow and Sunshine, 163; Love, 189; A Mother's
Lament, 215; Bereavement, 228; True Philosophy,
284; Trust-Faith, 241; Hope, 253; Adieu to Sor-
row, 258; Love and Death, 273; Boyhood's Early
Lay, 323; My Winter Room, 337; The Hermit
Heart, 372; A Child's Grave at Florence, 373; The
Sun-Dial and the Flower:-Borrowed Importance,
396; Lines on the Death of a Child, 453; Jaffar,
454; I wish my Love were some fair Stream, 481;
To Walter Savage Landor, 542; Liking and Dis-
liking, 557.

R.

Rossi, Countess of.-See Sontag.

Selkirk, Alexander-Hogg's Instructor,
Stars, Chemistry of.-See Chemistry.
Sphynx's Riddle-Hogg's Instructor, .

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ECLECTIC MAGAZINE

OF

FOREIGN LITERATURE. SCIENCE, AND ART.

JANUARY, 1850.

From the Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review.

HUMAN PROGRESS.

1. Lectures on the Races of Men. By ROBERT KNOX, M.D., F.R.S.E. Medical
Times.

2. The Philosophy of the Human Hand. Translated from the French of M. LE
CAINE. S. D'Arpentigny. Medical Times.
3. Modern Painters. By a Graduate of Oxford.

Cornhill.

We have grouped these works together, though apparently dissimilar, because they all bear upon the question of all others important to man, viz., human progress, physical and mental. The lectures of Dr. Knox have excited considerable interest, and deservedly so; but we regard them as valuable rather by inciting discussion than for the soundness of their philosophy. With a thorough appreciation for all earnest men, even when their faith is questionable, and thoroughly recognizing the earnestness of Dr. Knox, we cannot sympathize with the vituperative tone he uses toward the mental inferiorities of the world, who, for their misfortune and ours, may be put in high places. We do not use terms of abuse to the sloth, or the slug, or tiger, or hyaena, when discussing their peculiarities; and why should we do so to man when he is unfortunate enough to be misfitted to his occupation,

VOL. XIX. NO. I.

London: Smith, Elder & Co.,

whether king, kaisar, carle, or earl? The philosophical spirit does not deal in polemics, and abuse of individuals helps to perpetuate abuses. But Dr. Knox seems to us rather to be an acute perceiver than a sound reasoner, and somewhat prone, like the actor Dennis, to cry out, "That's my thunder!" But we respect him for things which he has, not expecting those he has not; and very valuable is he in his day and generation.

If we understand Dr. Knox's theory, it is that men were originally created of differing races, like the wild animals, and that however they may mingle in marriage, there is a constant tendency for the mixed race to die off, and the races to revert to their original types. More than this, he assumes that these original types are constantly disappearing, if we may judge from his words: "All things seem to move in cycles; races succeed races on the stage of the world."

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Regarding man simply as an animal, this proposition may hold good; but contemplating him as a highly intellectual being, possessing imagination and wisdom, the argument is utterly worthless. There can be no doubt that our orchard apples, were England dispeopled, would all revert to crabs, and we have, moreover,

Premising that we believe in the ultimate eradication of vicious qualities from man, in other words, in the fitting application of all man's qualities to uses beneficial to himself and his fellow-men, as intended from the beginning, we will endeavor to set forth our own views as to the processes he has passed through, and has yet to pass through. We

"Some tough old crab-trees here at home, that will may assume either of two theories,-that

not

Be grafted to our relish."

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But so long as England is England," that is, inhabited by a race of men, in the larger sense of the word, there is more chance of a crab-tree becoming a curiosity than of apples being extinct. The philosophy of Dr. Knox would form the whole races of men into castes-creatures of instinct, not of will. The world's history is yet but the dawn of mankind, and the reasoning built thereon lacks sufficient data. The original types of man seem to us capable of infinite variety, and that we are in a state of constant progress from lesser to greater-from plainness to beauty-from stupidity to high intellect from loatnsome animality to high and divine morality. Thus far we may agree with Dr. Knox, that the inferior types of man are disappearing and the superior increasing, as the cycles roll on,

"And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns."

In both Dr. Knox and M. D'Arpentigny, the love of theory seems to lead them to a Procrustean process of bending all things to their own fancy. Doubtless each human being is born with a peculiar natural aptitude, as are dogs and horses, and each human being will prove valuable to the world and to himself as this aptitude is developed; but we hold that, in order to be perfect, reasoning man must be a compendium of all that is desirable in man; and that, out of the whole races of men upon the earth will arise, in some future day, the mixed, or rather, perhaps, we should say, the restored race, that will realize the dream of man's perfectibility. Saxon industry, Celtic art, Arab passion, Negro hilarity, are all high qualities of man; and when they shall be combined in the same individuals, instead of existing separately, a harmonious world will be the result. Man, divided into distinct types, resembles the lame man mounted on the shoulders of the blind man, recorded in one of Mrs. Barbauld's stories, producing a result by very imperfect processes.

man was created civilized and lapsed into a savage, or that he was created a savage ab initio. In his savage state, he could only subsist on food of spontaneous growth-the vegetables of the earth, or the animals feeding on those vegetables. So long as he could procure food in plenty he would not be ferocious, but pressed by hunger he would be, like any of the carnivorous tribes, a fierce savage. He would war on his fellow-man to appropriate the scarce food, and this is precisely the practice that obtains amongst the red tribes of men in America. Gregarious man first associated, as distinct herds of catHis food. was tle do, for self-protection. wild animals. As they became scarce, hunger ensued, and to prevent this, a species of property-tribal property-was assumed under the title of "hunting-grounds," the claim being nearly of the same kind as a strong lion or tiger might assume.

The numbers of the tribes increasing, they preyed on each other's hunting-grounds, and thus induced war, whereby the numbers of men being reduced, the numbers of animals increased, and peace followed. This was the state of the red men at the advent of Columbus, and is their state still, save where the white men have come in amongst them. It is the state of the Arab tribes in Africa also. It is the state of all nations of men where the animal faculties are in excess of the reasoning. It has been more or less the state of Ireland up to the present time. The law of prey, which is the original law of nature, can only be abrogated by the law of human reason, which, in its approach to perfection, will gradually disperse those imperfections we are accustomed to class under the name of "evil."

The origin of race, therefore, is very easy to understand. It is obvious that in a savage state the term strongest applies to the man of the most perfect animal faculties. Good ears, sharp eyes, strong teeth, good health, and nervous and muscular energy, would constitute the strong man; vice versa the weak man. A portion more or less of cunning superadded to these qualities would constitute a chief of men, or king-König,

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